Second "Design Recharge" Interview: April 1, 2015In this second interview with Diane Gibbs at "Design Recharge" we focus on International Fake Journal Month. If you're wondering just what that is, I give a great description of it, and why you might want to participate. Also check out our earlier interview (below on this list) if you want more information about how I approach visual journaling.

First "Design Recharge" Interview: February 12, 2015Diane Gibbs of Design Recharge interviewed me for International Fake Journal Month (2015). We get a little side tracked and talk a lot about sketching, visual journaling, and my creative process. It's a great interview.

Where Is Roz Blogging?

Podcasts with Roz

Danny Gregory and I Discuss Visual JournalingSadly a two part podcast from May 2008 made with Danny Gregory, author of "An Illustrated Life," is not currently available. We talked about journaling, art media, and materials…If this becomes available again in the future I will let you know.

Finding Bits of TimeRicë Freeman-Zachery, author of "Creative Time and Space," talks to me about finding time to be creative. (Taped October 23, 2009.)

Watercolor

January 30, 2017

Above: A page spread from my 8 x 9.25 inch Shinola Sketchbook. It has 112 pages of 100 lb. (148 gsm) acid free paper. I purchased it for $28 at Wet Paint in St. Paul. I've written about these whenever I post from it, so you can use the category list, or go to the link in the caption. Staedtler Pigment Liner and watercolor. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

You can be in really close quarters with someone and you can still get something down on paper.

Here’s a partially completed sketch (I didn’t promise you would finish it!) of a kid sitting on a waiting room couch. I was sitting at the end of the table, literally three feet away from him.

Is this a great sketch? No. The lower part of his legs should be longer, and it would have been fun to get his face. But I’m pleased that I got down what was interesting to me. That slouch, and some of the lighting and cast shadows.

Yes I had my duck-billed cap on, and I started with the corner of the table and did his legs right away because I thought if I worked on things without looking at him, and only out of the corner of my eye, he wouldn’t catch on. And he didn’t, not until I pulled my watercolors out.

I had hoped to get his arms and head before he left, as the final part of my sketch. I saved those for last because to get them down I would have had to look right at him. I painted before finishing the sketch because of that. (Typically I finish the entire sketch before getting paints out, but I knew getting the paints out would draw his interest.)

Then just when I was going to start on the face he looked over at me and started asking me questions about my tools, that pesky water brush! And it turned out he’d just realized I was painting him (I came clean when we chatted). (I do have some ninja skills left.) He was a really sweat kid and also an artist. He does graffiti. He got out his notebook of sketches and of course I started talking to him about Montana Markers. I cannot help myself.

We talked about tools until it was time for my appointment so I never got to get his face down, but I had a great discussion with a fun young man.

My point today is you need to go ahead and sketch even if you’re right on top of your subject. With earbuds and phones these days people don’t typically notice what you’re up to. And when they do, they usually are more interested in your tools than annoyed. And if they are annoyed, just apologize and draw something else.

Every moment you practice seeing light, shadow, color, is a moment that adds up to make you faster in another situation—and some days you get a whole picture. Either way, you get everything you want—the fun of drawing from a live model.

January 15, 2017

Note:The images in today's post were sketched while I was sick with bronchitis and watching an episode of “Forged in Fire.” I LOVE THIS SHOW. Four blacksmiths compete in three rounds for $10,000. First they make a blade in 3 hours, then finish the blade in 3 hours in round two. The remaining two contestants are sent to their home forge to work for 5 days on a specific blade from history. They return for testing at the end of that time. We see video of them working at home. There is an edged and impact weapons specialist, Doug Marcaida, who tests the blades by hitting and stabbing anatomically correct gel test dummies, hacking his way through bamboo, and slicing through ropes (among other things). I want Doug’s job when I grow up! Typically someone with a great beard appears on this show. I don’t understand why that is because, if I were working around fire I wouldn’t want to have a beard that could ignite, but hey I don’t ask questions about beards, I just draw them.

While sketching these images my goals began to gel in my mind because of the way the sketching was going. I write about this in the captions and in today’s blog post. Thanks for stopping by.

Above: 8 x 7.5 inch square page from a journal hand made with Folio (New Folio) paper. Pentel Pocket Brush Pen with watercolor and a Montana Marker background. On this particular day I had not warmed up. I worked directly in brush pen as is my habit; every line seemed to work. Since I was ill and pretty much at an all time high of GRUMPY this was a good thing (for me emotionally, and for Dick when he wandered into the room to check on me). I haven't worked on the New Folio paper for a while and I found I was getting used to the way it handled watercolor quickly. Click on the image and view an enlargement.

As 2016 ended I found myself going to the Bell Museum frequently and sketching the animals and the rooms, but I didn’t get a lot of people sketching in. When it came time for the Bell to close and people were coming out in droves, I had caught Dick’s cold and was staying home.

Work and family kept me away from life-drawing class as well.

I always find I take a step back in my drawing when I’m not going to life drawing regularly—no matter how much I draw on any given day.

Since the year has wrapped up I’ve been too sick to go out to life drawing (well, I could go out to it and get stuff done, but I’m too considerate and don’t want to spread germs).

So while I’ve been at home I have been thinking about my goals for 2017. I encourage my students to do self-evaluations at the end of every 6 week time period, but I also think an end of year assessment is good. I published my end of year assessment already, but today I'm writing about goals so blog readers can see what I do with all that assessment information.

One top goal is to finish the two online classes I’m shooting and editing video for right now. I really want them to come out soon. But let’s just leave them for now. I’ll let you know as soon as they are a go. (And the full schedule of classes will be updated at that time as well, thanks for your patience.)

My other art-related goal concerns portraits. I want to do more of them and I want to do them in a different way than I’ve been working in the past year.

I think what I’m trying to tell myself is that I want to do more painting.

Just before the end of the year I did a major sort through in the studio, archiving a lot of old projects, taking down framed art, and putting up more recent artwork that reminds me of where I want to go in my art. All the new pieces are people and dog portraits. (This doesn’t mean that I’m giving up on birds, as if! It just means I do enough of those without “reminding” myself.)

PORTRAITS—Speaking of Portraits—Is 2017 your year for doing more portraits? Join the MCBA Visual Journal Collective at their Ninth Annual Portrait Party on MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2017 at 6:30 to 9 p.m. At Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

Bring $5 cash and a black or dark ink pen to work in (pencils never copy well!) Be ready to draw a partner & bind a book!

As is our January tradition Monday night we will have our annual portrait party. Our meeting will be held at Minnesota Center for Book Arts in both the bindery and flexi space. Participants should plan on arriving at 6:30. Please do not be late as the center is closed and we need to start right on time be be able to complete all the night's activities and the door will be locked shortly after the meeting begins. Attendees also need to bring $5 cash or check payable to MCBA to cover the cost of paper, printing, and binding a book. Please bring exact change as the shop is closed and we will have no way to get change.

During the party people will be paired off. You’ll each have a set time to sketch each other. Then all the sketches will be gathered and combined into a master layout and photocopied. When assembled the drawing pairs will appear opposite each other on the spread. Everyone goes home with a book!It’s the most fun you can have—creating content and printing an editioned book all in one evening.

Above: Here's the full page spread in my journal. I'm still working directly in brush pen, but I have zero stamina as I'm coughing and haven't had enough sleep. I can see my lines are taking way too much thought. But I love working in series so I won't put the pen down. I keep watching the show and sketching. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

With those portraits up on the studio wall I’ve been thinking about my regular practice. Typically I have little time to render a portrait during the day, and no model until Dick comes home. I find that I’ve been relying on my brush pen for the quick sketch. However, with the black ink so strident, if you go awry then you sort of have to go with it.

I’ve been wondering, since I typically don’t have time to do more than one version, if a different approach would help me both in accuracy and in speed—because I have to be able to work fast. Even when it takes me an hour to paint Dick, I’m working fast the entire time. Sometimes we just have to work with how we are wired and go with it.

At the last sketch out at the Bell I spoke a little while with Ken Avidor. I was just finishing up a sketch and he was between sketches, and then started to sketch a weasel.

To speed up his process Ken has started sketching in graphite on his toned Strathmore pages. Then he goes in with his Platinum Carbon Black ink (using one of his several fountain pens). When the ink is down, and barely dry, he erases the minimal pencil lines and then adds his color with color pencils. His paper of choice, the toned Strathmore drawing paper, is totally amenable to this treatment. Pencil erases easily from it. Ken finds that the simple pencil sketch allows him to ink very quickly. This allows him to spend more time on important details instead of the basic structure. And I have to stress the pencil sketch is VERY SIMPLE. His weasel sketch looked like a trapezoid with extensions coming off it. For Ken, it’s pretty much a place holder. It ensures that he will get his subject on the page, and leave enough of the page so that he will get his full subject there. The pencil sketching takes less 20 seconds.

I’ve watched Ken draw with and without the pencil sketch. He’s fast both ways. His drawings are stunningly fun both ways. If he thinks he’s faster this way I believe him, but mortals watching the process might not see much of a difference.

As I watched him draw the weasel though, something clicked for me. If I started with a pencil outline or gesture and so ensured that my whole subject as desired would be placed where I wanted it, I would catch something else in the process.

I have a problem with wideology—I tend to allow too much space between elements. I have to constantly correct that (especially before I put that strong black line down!).

I also have a habit of starting with a subject's eye and working my way out. Most of the time this works for me. But now and then I find that I’m so committed to certain details that by the time I get to the outer rim it’s too late to adjust. So speed here has a detrimental effect to accuracy.

I’d really like to see my accuracy improve this year.(I have a project I want to do in 2018. Improving my accuracy with portraits will make that project possible.)

To work on improving my portrait likeness accuracy I’ve come up with the following goals—

1. I’m going to get back to life drawing on a weekly basis, as soon as I’m well.

2. As soon as some current projects are finished and I can carve out more free time I’m going to look into additional life-drawing sessions so I can expand my experiments. Friends should realize that if we are going to lunch I will be painting a picture of you. So don’t even try to resist. (You can of course paint me right back.)

3. I’m still going to start some portraits directly with the brush pen. I love this. I love the high-wire-no-net-aspect of it. If they go wonky, I'll finish them and do another sketch, and then another. I enjoy working in series like that and I don’t get gummed up when things don’t go as planned. BUT…

Left: The next verso page in my journal. I completed another direct brush pen sketch (1) but totally lost the likeness. I was frustrated. Once you put a mark down you are pretty much committed. I was going to pack it up because I could tell I was really tired, but I decided to sketch first with a color pencil I had nearby. I wanted to use the quick pencil sketch to keep me in line. In the first sketch you can see how his face slopes out to the right. Not only am I dealing with wideology, I'm dealing with some vertical distortion. In the second sketch on the right (2) I sketched a shape for the head with color pencil, then went in and carefully, but quickly, placed brush lines where I wanted them, and added some watercolor. Drawing (2) on this page took a little longer than (1) because of the watercolor washes, but actually was pretty close in time—and I was able to avoid distortions either horizontally or vertically. Most important, Dick came by and said I'd held onto the likeness. YAY! And that got me thinking about Ken Avidor and our recent discussion at the Bell, and that led me to the goals in this post.

4. I’m also going to do portraits starting with a light, vague pencil line to show the whole, in hopes that I can continue to train myself out of wideology and get a closer likeness more quickly.

5. I’ve already started working on pencil and watercolor sketches with no brush pen or other ink at all. I’ll continue to do this. There are effects that I want to play with—most notably the way in which I can depart from the pencil sketch and make the paint carry the whole image without ink line.

6. Number 5 gets me painting more in watercolor and so another goal I have this year is to bind some of the paper I tore down before my shoulder injury (which is doing great right now) and work on paper made for watercolor so I can work on the watercolor effects I’m trying to master. I love working on all sorts of papers, but in the past 6 months I found it counter productive to what my goals were to be working on paper unsuited to the tasks. Consequently I didn’t make a lot of headway on my goals. (I also wasn't able to paint as much because of work and family so I'm not overly concerned about not making headway—I just have to focus on it.) I have watercolor paper and boards cut for my loose page journal if the journal I’m working in at the time isn’t full of paper that works for the current experiment.

7. My friend Diane gave me a wonderful airtight palette for my gouache paints and I used it when working in the Bell for my 13-week project. It’s so fun to go on site and work with fresh gouache. The palette is too big (about 6 x 9 inches) to carry about and sketch standing, but I plan on taking it out more with me.

8. To support numbers 6 and 7 I’m going to be taking a water container and real watercolor brushes, including my beloved filberts, out with me more frequently. I’m hoping that I can do this at least once a week. (I have to find venues where I can sit and sketch, and where paint and open water are allowed.) I’ll still be using my pan palettes and the Niji water brush—I’m just going to be making a conscious effort to have more of a painting experience. I’ve missed it.

9. To support numbers 6 through 8 I’m going to start carrying my stool around with me when I go to sketch outs. I have a micro stool which frankly I have to be careful getting on and off of because it’s so low and my knees aren’t getting any younger—but I’ve enjoyed using it on numerous occasions at the Bell Museum throughout the end of the year. I won’t carry it (or one of my larger stools) everywhere I go, but I think it will be helpful having it upon occasion.

10. I tested a lot of commercially bound journals in 2016. That meant that sometimes I started a new journal before finishing another one. Typically I have a studio journal and an 8 x 8 inch or so journal that I carry around with me. At one point last year I had 5 journals going and that really doesn't seem comfortable with me. This year I'm working to keep the number of journals down. I have my studio journal—the first of which will be one of the largest Hahnemühle Nostalgie sketchbooks. I also have an 8 x 7.5 inch hardbound journal with that new Folio paper in it. I've pretty much only been working in it so far this year. I also have a small landscape Hahnemühle Nostalgie Sketchbook that fits into my fanny pack. I can carry it with me easily anywhere I go—if I were actually going anywhere! At some point I'll break down on my resolve to have only a few journals and start a new Japanese Lined Journal, just because it's been so long, I love them so much, and they allow me to be messy and did I mention they are so fun? Of course there will be the loose sheet journal—that's what all the cut up watercolor paper and watercolor board is for—so I can follow through on my goals. But no testing of new commercially bound journals for awhile. I really enjoy "chronological pages" and there is real satisfaction in being half way through the hardbound journal knowing that by the end of the month I can start a new journal.

Right now that’s how my thinking is going. I don’t have any major projects planned. (I still have to scan the last two projects—2016 Minnesota State Fair, and the 98 pages of the Bell Museum project. And of course I’ll be participating in International Fake Journal Month in April!) I think that focusing on the items in the above list will help me get faster by working smarter.

They will also help me transition into some sort of sane practice for the Minnesota State Fair Sketch Out in 2017 (August—put it on your calendar!!! Marty Harris will again be organizing it and I'll keep you posted of details as they come out.) As the new year starts I realize how important it is to be a little bit kinder to my body.

There are a couple other changes coming up—but they will need their own blog post at a later date. Over all I think I have a pretty simple plan for pushing myself in the direction I want to go so that I can execute future projects.

I’ll still be posting regularly on this blog in 2017. (I’ve been in the habit of posting three times a week and something like that will probably continue once I’m 100 percent again.) I appreciate you all checking in on the blog and love it when you let me know in the comments what you are up to.

I hope you’ve set some art goals for yourself this year and that they all come to fruition!

December 21, 2016

Above: Pen and watercolor sketch at the Bell Museum on 9 x 12 inch white Stonehenge paper. And yes Stonehenge is not a watercolor paper, but sometimes you just want to paint on what you want to paint on. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Sunday was the Urban Sketchers Twin Cities sketch out at the Bell Museum. I added the afternoon to my schedule of visits I set up when I started my "Bell Museum—13 Weeks To Say Good-Bye" project at the beginning of October.

I've gone so many times to sketch at the Bell over the course of my life, especially in the past 38 years when I actually lived full-time in Minneapolis, that I lose track. A few weeks ago, as part of the studio shake up, Dick helped me move all but my 2015 and 2016 journals into the back room with my other stored journals. When he had to go off and help the folks my progress slowed. I found myself looking in some of those journals I was shelving "out of the way." It surprised me how often, in flipping through the pages, there would be a sketch that I made at the Bell. Sometimes I might just be walking across campus and take a moment to duck in and make a quick sketch. It made me smile to come across them.

Mostly at the Bell I sketch animal portraits and studies. I look at angles. I sit on the floor and look up. I sit at the side and look askance (the animals never mind.) I make notes and draw corrections right on my page. I'm working as fast as possible, treating the specimens as live—because this for me is practice for life drawing—for finding animals in the forest, on a trip, or in the neighborhood.

Going weekly (or more) to the Bell in these past several weeks I've realized that while some specimens won't be making the trip to the new building on the St. Paul campus, many will. So what I'll miss ultimately the most is the actual place, the physical space, the physical building.

I've had a lifetime of missing places. By the time I went to university and stopped living with my family I think we had moved 17 or 18 times. (I would have to count them up.) That includes two transPacific moves (two out and two back trips, though I was in the womb for the first out trip).

You would think with all that practice saying good-bye I would be at peace with letting go, but it wasn't until I started this project to consciously say good-bye to the Bell that I realized I am finding this change harder than I expected—there is something of letting go of youth in this transition. (And I've never been one to hold on to my youth.)

There are sights, sounds, and smells at the Bell that will always be with me. And they all have created emotional attachments in my memory. There were trips made with friends to sketch. Now some are dead and I go in part to be with them. I sit with their ghosts and we sketch together, always content with our silent, shared industry.

Somedays when I go to the Bell there is complete silence—but the silence is different from the silence one used to have years ago with the school term going on about one. There is a silence of shutting down. Other times there is the typical noise of school children, often screaming, always laughing. And always there is the sound of birdsong or animal calls (if kids are pressing buttons).

What is also constant is a quality of light (low level, about which many sketchers complain, but which I find oddly comforting and essential to the tone of wonder being set).

I'm not a painter who does interiors, but in these last few trips I've found myself turning away from my warm up, not to another taxidermied specimen, but to face down a hall or across a room, and see something I've seen 10,000 times before and think, OK, maybe that's the thing to sketch. Because while many of the animals will be making the move, the wall color, the paneling (which seems to sigh in the heat of the summer in this unairconditioned building), the signs, the carpet—they all won't be going. And yet we notice all these things when we focus on the exhibits. It all seeps in.

I turned on Sunday towards a view. I turned down the hall from the "Big Woods" and saw one of my favorite dioramas, the Sandhill Cranes, with its glowing signage in the paneled wall. Had I been an architect or artist who always sketches interiors I might have allowed space on my page at the left, for the recessed benches in the walls. I will miss those benches.

As I sketched a family came up and stood at the window along the right. That's actually the child who stood there, reduced to a rough gesture here.

Dick claims I was simply using an opportunity to include a self portrait in my Bell project. He laughed at my cunning.

At her age I didn't wear glasses, but my hair was long and loose. People laugh to learn I only started braiding my hair in college.

As I sketched her quickly, because I thought it would be nice to have someone there for scale, it did strike me that she bent her foot up against the paneling just as I still do when I stand and sketch. There is a desire to press forward and enter that tableau. I had it at her age. She had it Sunday with her family herky-jerky around her. She stayed still, absorbed with yearning.

She was looking in at the Tundra Swans, which is such a lovely exhibit. From my perspective there was only glare and the bounced reflection of the Sandhill Cranes.

I wondered, when I went to paint her red jacket, though she was long gone, if decades from now she would remember what it was like to be in the Bell Museum, the OLD Bell Museum, on a frigid cold day when the songbirds were still singing.

Note: The Old Bell Museum closes on December 31, 2016. You still have a few days to get over there and make some memories.

December 16, 2016

Above: Brush pen, Daniel Smith watercolor (on the Tootsie Pop) and Schmincke Horadam gouache background. In the Seawhite of Brighton square sketchbook I was using earlier this year. Sides masked with Nichiban Artist's tape. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I love Tootsie Pops. For years I couldn't get them because we lived in Australia. They speak of very early childhood to me. Grape and Orange are the only two flavors I'll eat. (We all have to draw the line somewhere.)

Over the past several years I've drawn a lot of different suckers or lollipops. I never tire of it. I keep thinking that if I had more time I would draw more of them, and I would do them as "regular" paintings in a series outside the journal.

But then every day I start to think that way and buy one, bring it home, and start doing studies in my journal to get ready for that final painting…

November 21, 2016

Left: Water-soluble Color Pencil sketch of actress in the British comedy “Hebburn.” Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I first opened my first Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook in June of this year. I thought I’d be finished quickly (even though it’s a nice thick journal) and would write a comprehensive review.

Then life interrupted.

I continued to work in the Seawhite Sketchbook (SW for short) but I also worked in other journals I was testing, or sometimes simply carrying around because they were smaller and my shoulder was acting up. And of course there was the Minnesota State Fair…

I completed the sketchbook on November 11, 2016. (I completed three other journals during that time, but there you have it—I don’t believe my lack of faithfulness was due to not liking the sketchbook, as I said earlier, life happened.)

I’ve tried to make points about the sketchbook and its paper as I’ve gone along. I’ll recap here. If you want the complete view of posts and thoughts on this journal you can go to the category list in my blog and click on “Seawhite Sketchbooks.” A listing of all the posts will come up and you can check out what I’ve done in this book and the types of media I’ve used.

I found this to be an excellent, inexpensive sketchbook, suitable for mixed media sketching. I worked in the 8 inch square version. It has 190 pages of 140 gsm Seawhite All-Media Cartridge Paper. The paper is BRIGHT WHITE, and has a high degree of opacity, even when you work with bold black ink brush pens.

Left: Detail from the above image. This is an earthtone Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Water soluble Color Pencil. I found that it layered well on this paper. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

The book is 1 inch thick. It is a SEWN signature hardbound construction with sturdy cover boards that maintained their stiffness and integrity throughout the active use of this volume.

The case is covered with “black cloth.” This is a low grade type fabric—that seems more like a paper impressed with a woven pattern and impregnated with something like a resin for wear. I have no idea. I mention this because you should NOT expect high quality bookcloth.That said, the material is easy and pleasant to hold in your hand as you sketch. It is not plastic-y to the touch. It feels good. It is sturdy. It takes scuffing well, and even when it shows scuffing and abrasion it is still protective. You will find that it wears quickly on the spine, not the hinge, but the spine. I found that as I worked through the book the lighter weight spine backing actually folded just before the center of the spine. This leaves a visible crease down the spine, but does not influence the opening and closing of the book or make it weak.

Wear and tear shows most quickly at the head and tail of the spine. That area only has thin support (as is normal on such a structure) and it takes all the banging around from being pushed into and pulled out of a pack.

There are no headbands in this book—it’s a no frills book.

I know that the number one issue for many sketchbook artists is whether or not the book opens flat for working and scanning. (I admit this is an important issue but not number one for me.)

This book, being so thick, opens “flat-ish” on most spreads. There are shadows cast at the spine gutter on some of the initial and end pages of the book. In some center spreads the thickness of the book causes it to bow away from the scanner. MOST OF THIS can be addressed by weighting the book during scanning.

If your rule of thumb to live by is how Moleskines and Handbooks open flat than this book will be a little frustrating for you. (I would still encourage you to broaden your horizons and try one to see for yourself.)

The Paper

If we are sensible, we buy sketchbooks because of the quality of their paper.

Is the 140 gsm Seawhite All-Media Cartridge Paper a great paper? No, but then there are few commercially made journals or sketchbooks that come with great paper. It is a serviceable paper, and a truly mixed media paper, and that makes it a great economical choice for visual artists.

For me interacting with the paper is a large part of the experience of keeping a visual journal or sketchbook. I find that there are media I enjoyed more than others in this book. (That’s true of most commercially bound journals or sketchbooks I test.)

Below: the first pages in this new Seawhite Sketchbook. I've seeing what does what and how I have to adjust working methods. The pen and ink is incredibly fun on this paper. Note that on the right I mention that the yellow Montana Marker bled through this page. It's the only Montana Marker that did. I think I didn't shake it up enough and had too much paint on the page for too long, creating too much moisture. You will want to be careful with dye-based products on this paper if you add moisture to them, but otherwise you won't have things bleeding through in "normal" usage.

I found that the paper was smooth enough that I could write even with a fine-tipped pen on it. (See previous link, bottom left of image.) Yet when I worked with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen on this paper I could get lovely dry brush effects because there was enough tooth to the paper to allow the brush pen to leave its lovely idiosyncratic marks.

If what you do in your sketchbook is ink-based, either pigment liners, dip pens, or brush pens—this paper loves pen. You need to get one.

Below: You can see pigment ink (left) and dye-based watersoluble in (right) on this spread. Also on the left you can see some show through of heavy black ink work on the previous page. It looks less noticeable in person and doesn't distract from new work on the next page. If this show through bothers you simply scan the page with a sheet of black paper positioned behind the page you're scanning and you won't see the previous page's work showing through on your scan. On the right side the color is Stabilo Tone water-soluble crayons (a now limited line of colors available under the new name Woody). The lines do not completely dissolve on this paper because you want to use a little less water, but it's workable to build up water-soluble wax crayons like the Stabilo Tone or the Neocolor II on this paper. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Since this is a lightweight paper you’ll find that it may buckle slightly depending on the extent of your water use. I found that the drying time (with temperature and humidity being constant) was longer on this paper and required that I modify my water use, and also forced me to wait until my wash layers dried which is actually a good thing.

If you’re used to working on lightweight watercolor papers than this won’t be a stretch for you. If you work only on 140 lb. watercolor paper expect an adjustment—which should be accomplished in a single session.

I found that paint didn’t bleed through unless I really roughed up the paper with a lot of overwork in certain areas. So just don’t overwork. Most of the time I could actually have continued to overwork the paper if I had only let the paper dry first, e.g., when I put lots of layers of Montana Marker on something and kept changing my mind.

The paper didn’t pill for me, even when I overworked it (by using too much water or adding other colors too quickly when layering or correcting colors), except in one situation where I didn’t let things dry enough and actually worked through the paper in one spot. (If you see bits of “fluff” in any of my image samples it’s from the tip of a Montana Marker.)

The paper is also stiff enough to take collage—however I recommend that if you like to do a lot of collage you start preemptively removing pages (leaving tabs) at the front of the book and throughout, so that you don’t expand the book so much you stress the spine.

Will I Use These Sketchbooks Again?

Yes, most definitely. I ordered several at the time of purchase because I wanted to play with different sizes and formats (landscape, portrait, square).

I have only one reservation about this book. It’s a feeling actually, and all we have to go by in the final instance is our feelings about how something worked for use—it didn’t keep me engaged. I could say it was because the format was square and while I usually love square books of this size (8 x 8 inches) I was working elsewhere in 11 x 14 inch size. I could say it was because I was working on watercolor projects outside the journal and was being spoilt by using actual watercolor paper. I could say it was the thickness of the volume and I simply got distracted by a desire to test other books and use other papers.

All I know is that I found there were times I didn’t pick the book up but went to other books to work in.

Writing about this now I think it was nothing more than life, and typically during times of stress I use a handmade book with my favorite paper in it. That’s probably all it was.

I was also trying to do a bunch of tests and the reality was that sometimes I didn’t want to text. I just wanted to “be” with the book.

Below: Pen with watercolor (left) and pen with various markers—including Uni Posca, Montana, and Sharpie waterbased poster paint pens. I found that if I let the dilutions of my watercolors get too thin the colors looked too muted on this paper, so you'll want to control that, because while it is a mixed media paper, it is a not watercolor paper. By the time I tested the Lukas watercolors in this book I'd got the ratio of water right. (See left page on this spread for dull watercolor layer.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I also found that there are times when I would leave a blank page. I never do this (or rarely) in my handmade books. I did this in the SW because I wanted to use a square format and not have something opposite the image, or because I started something on one page and didn’t finish and didn’t want to start on the next page (unusual for me). I don’t know. I just need to tell you that this ambivalence occurred.

But then I need to tell you that as November came around and “goal and quota” time as we laughingly call it here went into full throttle, I finished this journal in a day with four spreads that were the most fun in the book. And they were ink and Montana Marker (you will see two of them in a movie review post at the end of November).

What is goal and quota time? That’s the end of the year period when I look around in my life and say, “shit, the year is almost over, how many journals are there in progress and let’s finish them up.” And of course by “let’s=let us” I mean ME, I have to finish them up. I don’t really have to finish up anything, but it makes for such a tidy effect if I have all my active journals finished before December 31 so I can start a new one on January—not essential, but tidy. I like tidy. You got that right, from reading the blog?

Sometimes we just need to give in to what we really want to do with a paper. This bright white paper loves ink. I love ink. Of course I’ll use this book again.

If I stopped binding my own books I could actually see it becoming one of my favorite commercially bound sketchbooks. Of course that would be just about exactly the moment when you couldn't purchase them in the U.S. any longer!

Note: I purchased the sketchbook I used for testing. While I provided the Amazon link as a convenience I’m not in any way connected to Amazon or Seawhite.

November 18, 2016

Left: This year at the Fair, at least on a few days, there were some birds. A big change from last year when bird flu hit and birds were banned from the Fair. The sad news is that the pigeon fancy took a huge hit. We were down from hundreds of entries to less than ten. And, well I'll mention the rest in my flip through. I was glad to have some chickens to sketch on some of my visits. This is a 7.75 x 9.75 inch Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media journal (soft covered) turned on end, gutter running through the center of the image. I had a large piece of corrugated plastic board to clamp my book to because the humidity makes the large soft-covered sketchbooks a bit limp. Pen and watercolor. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I've been busy with work and family and having the best time seeing what my design class students are coming up with.

At the same time I've been trying to think how best to show this journal which contains so many verticals. (Not something really suited for the landscape orientation of the video format.)

We work with what we have and we do a little bit every day.

After two long posts this week I thought you would enjoy a little peek into my Fair journal, and not a lot of words!

Both of the images I'm showing you here come from the two "sketch out" days. On those days I took a bound journal: a 7.75 x 9.75 inch Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media journal (soft covered). On the other days I took 9 x 12 inch or 9 x 6 inch watercolor boards.

OK—go sketch some animals this weekend! You know you want to!

Below: Some sheep. I used the Faber-Castell Pitt Calligraphy marker. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

October 28, 2016

Above: Working in my 8 x 8 inch Seawhite of Brighton Sketchbook I sketched the top of one of the old Brewery buildings in Indanthrone blue watercolor pencil (Faber-Castell) which I left dry. I blocked out the sky with a light blue 15 mm Montana Marker. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Last Saturday Twin Cities Urban Sketchers met at the Pierre Bottineau Community Library on the site of the former Grain Belt Brewery to discuss the Manchester Symposium, the upcoming Chicago Symposium, and then to sketch the surrounding area. Due to University of Minnesota Homecoming traffic diversions (I live in a student area), I missed part of the meeting, but I did get to say hi to the sketchers before we all dispersed. Some of the pages I did from 1:30 until our 4 p.m. throw down are simply odd, but the two spreads shown here show you a little of what I was up to as far as building sketches on this site.

It was a beautiful fall day, with dazzling fall light, 60 degree temperature, and only a light breeze. It was warm working in the sunlight.

If you live in the Twin Cities or near by this monthly sketch get-togeter is an excellent opportunity to meet fellow sketchers, learn more about the Urban Sketchers world wide network and events, and be inspired by some really fun sketches. The talent in this group is very deep and dedicated and at the same time very encouraging of newbies.

Sketch outs are typically held the third weekend of the month. The events alternate between Saturdays and Sundays and mornings and afternoons, in the hopes that people with scheduling conflicts can catch some of the meetings. The meetings are publicized on the group's blog and Facebook page (Twin Cities Urban Sketchers).

There are some sketch events coming up that will be announced soon, and yes we sketch all year! It's Minnesota.

Below: everywhere I walked there was incredible light. I decided to make a little study of one of the driveways at the old Brewery, then sketch a view down the street to a startlingly green, late fall, bit of grass by an overpass (I'm a city girl), and of course I find the one dog in the neighborhood, even if it is a block away. On this spread I was working quickly with the Tombow Calligraphy Brush Pen which has a fine fiber-tip and water resistant ink. (There is a "Permanent" ink version of this pen which has a strong solvent odor and that's not the pen I was using.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Note: In this post I'm writing about pre-2004 Lukas Watercolors, read the whole post for the complete story to avoid product confusion.

The availability in my area of the Niji Waterbrush in about 1999 or 2000 changed yet again how I kept visual journals. Previously to that some friends who traveled to Japan in the 1990s had Nijis but I didn't.

I chose to keep my visual journals in color pencil. Watercolor was kept in the studio.

But once I had that waterbrush my mind turned to taking watercolors out in the urban "field." (I had been taking watercolors and travel brushes into the wilderness.) My thoughts turned to pan watercolors and I ended up buying a 50-color set of half pans of Lukas watercolors.

The set was of course unwieldy, the colors problematic, and I reverted almost immediately to my Daniel Smith palettes. And in due course I started messing with my color selection in that Daniel Smith palette—which you can see here, if you go to "Leisure Reading" and click on "Educational Content?" There you'll find a write up of that color transition. And you can see the rationale behind some of my culling of colors.

I continue to mess with which colors I use and I've got a couple posts I need to finish writing about the last two transitions!

Recently however I've been reorganizing the studio. For me that means getting rid of things I haven't used in a long time, moving stored items, and also moving books, books, books.

During the process I found the old Lukas set and decided to play with it a little, even if just in the studio or out to lunch with friends. It's still too unwieldy for me to lug about if I'm going to be standing and sketching.

Above: Detail of today's image. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

As for the "facial overwhelm" you can read what I wrote about that if you look at the journal page itself. Just click on the main image and you'll see an enlargement. Clearly September and October have been "fraught" months with me not getting out much.

The problem with the Lukas watercolor paints, and what I can't seem to get to show up on the scans, but which you can see in person, is a slight milkiness to the Cobalt (which makes sense because when using less expensive pigments manufacturers tend to put white in cobalt watercolor).

But there is another aspect to the paint that was bothersome to me. They didn't move in a way that I expect watercolors to move. They didn't flow, but stayed put, sort of like the ox gall-less Holbein formulation (but I find Holbein much more workable).

The flow issue wasn't simply because I was working on a non-watercolor paper. I do that all the time. And I had previous days' work with my Daniel Smith Watercolors on this paper to mentally compare "action" with.

Additionally some colors rewet into lush puddles of thick, almost gouache-like opaque paint, and other colors were so anemic that I knew they would never be used by me, even for sketches.

Puzzled by these results, and by the need to clear out everything that doesn't need to be here and isn't being used and is simply taking up storage space, I went to Handprint.com and checked out what Handprint had to say about Lukas watercolor paints. It seems that pre-2005 paints had some "issues" in pigment choice and composition which would explain the types of working capabilities I was experiencing:

The pigments are milled to a uniform, bland texture, which is possible because the paints contain a very heavy load of brighteners and fillers, visible as a whitish opacity across all the colors (even the normally transparent quinacridones and phthalos), and as a whitish sludge in sedementation tests. In addition, the cobalt blue is lightened with chinese white (PW4) and even the relatively inexpensive ultramarine blue is boosted with phthalo blue (PB15). The pigment load is relatively low, so the colors seem to wash out under even moderate dilution. Finally, Lukas does not consistently provide pigment ingredient information or health warnings on the paint packaging (as required by the ASTM labeling standards) or at the company web site; the pigment information is included in a marketing brochure which must be ordered from the manufacturer.

Handprint did update the listing in 2004 and mention the reformulation of the paints, so people with paints after this date might find a different experience than I've had with mine—but I'm uninterested in buying a new set of paints I might also not enjoy.

I did some more tests with this older set to see if I could "live with it" for quick studies, but it soaked through a printmaking paper I routinely and safely paint on with Daniel Smith Watercolors so I was frustrated. It's the same type of behavior I find with dye-based products on the paper I was using. I just didn't want to deal with the frustration.

But what to do with the paints? I don't like throwing things out—though even expensive junk is still junk and I can be cold and do this.

I hate giving young artists bad products. I know that anyone I gave this set to would have trouble with mixing colors because of all the multiple pigments in each paint.

Instead I gave the set, with ample warnings and caveats to an experienced color theory friend to play with. Now it isn't my problem any more.

The whole experience did leave me with with a hankering for some different blues. Those experiments will continue with my Daniel Smith and my Schmincke pan palettes.

If you've been using Lukas watercolors that you are positive were made after 2005 (and you know they aren't simply old stock you bought), and they were made with single pigments, write to me sometime with a sample sketch and let me know how you like the paints and how they work for you.

October 14, 2016

Here’s another graphite and watercolor portrait from my series “learning a face.” It also happens to be in the Seawhite of Brighton Sketchbook which is 8 x 8 inches square (the one I’m working in). (Click on it to view an enlargement.)

Continue reading as I review working in watercolor in the Seawhite in this post.

I drew a quick sketch in graphite and then glazed in colors as earlier layers dried. I’m experimenting with some different colors for my skintones to suit what I’m seeing.

In the detail of the image you can see the graphite marks of my sketch. I didn't note down which pencil I was using. I think it was one of my Palomino Blackwing pencils.

Left: Heres a detail of the watercolor and graphite sketch so you can see what's going on. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Palomino Blackwing: Great pencil or simply a design fad because of a revised product? I don't know. I didn't use them when they were original. All I can say is they work well for me and I have them around because I use them for my sudoku puzzle in the morning! Typically I draw with Faber-Castell Graphite pencils in anything from 9H to 9B. But lately I've been using some lead holders and mechanical pencils. The reason it hasn't mattered too much to me is that I'm making only a very light sketch and not trying to build anything up. I just want some shapes down before I go in with watercolor—I could do that with a golf pencil.)

How is it to paint on this paper compared to watercolor paper?It doesn't flow the same at all as it isn't sized to flow wet media. But the smooth surface of the paper (it has some tooth, but is a fairly smooth surface, with a tight tooth) holds washes where you put them, soaks in (but not through) typically before you can deal with your edges, allows a little bit of reworking to reblend, also allows you to pick up too much with too little effort so you need al night touch glazing. I think it's fun to paint in these books, but then I typically don't paint on watercolor paper anyway. If you love watercolor paper this paper will drive you crazy. Oh, I also find it's easier to work small and puddle things.

With too much water and reworking you can actually work quickly through the paper and create weak spots where the paper will give way. But what's "too much"? You'll have to discover it for yourself. I have found that I can actually work a lot on this paper, and HARD, as long as I let areas dry solidly before I go at them again. Sometimes this is frustrating because I sketch quickly, but I find I can slow down if I concentrate on that. I think it's a useful paper.

If you go and look at my William Talman portrait here, you'll see a page spread that was really worked over with lots of different media. There isn't a lot of moisture in the Montana Markers compared to watercolor brushes, but I worked the page more too. A couple areas that I didn't let dry first were worked through. Just do some test pages and you'll find out what works for you.

If you work in pencil, color pencil, or pen, with light washes of watercolor that you don't go back into to change or glaze, than I think you'll find this a fun sketchbook to work in with your mixed media choices. (Recall my earlier comments that it is difficult to get this book to open flat on your scanner, if that matters to you.)

Below: See the full spread with my debriefing notes on the recto page when I finished the sketch. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

October 10, 2016

Note: I discovered while creating this post that I've been listing this commercially bound journal as "Seabright" not "Seawhite." I apologize for the confusion if this has caused you any. I just have to plead stress and exhaustion from some family duties. I'm not using this journal every day and I simply failed one day to look at it before writing a post—bingo.

I've gone back through my posts and tried to catch all the references. Some post titles may contain the incorrect name because of the whole issue with permalinks. But at least the text references will help you locate this product. Here in the U.S. I have been able to purchase it from Amazon. Simply search "SEAWHITE of Brighton" and a bunch of sizes will come up. I have not written a full review of this sketchbook as I'm still working my way through it. You can find all the posts from this test journal under the category "Seawhite Sketchbook."

Above is a quick graphite and watercolor sketch I made in an effort to continue to learn my friend’s features, but also to play more with watercolor over graphite—and to test both on the paper in the Seawhite of Brighton sketchbooks. You can click on the images in this post to enlarge them for closer viewing.

I found the paper held up to the glazing of different colors. (Colors applied in washes and left to dry, then additional colors applied, etc.) I wasn’t trying to blend the edges of my washes, but just work quickly. I found things dried a little slowly on this paper, but I adjusted to the timing the more sketches like this I did. (You can see an earlier one of my friend Don here.)

I did make corrections and adjustments to the graphite sketch as I worked with the watercolor. In the following image you can see my “debriefing” after I finished the sketch.